Texas Southern Professor’s Lost Shelley Duvall Film to Premiere in Houston

A long-unseen film starring the late Shelley Duvall will finally get its world premiere—25 years after it was made—thanks in part to Texas Southern University.

“Dreams in the Attic,” a family film shot in Houston and Galveston in 2000, was directed by Texas Southern University professor Robert Willems and features Duvall as a quirky costume shop owner whose magical wardrobe teaches teenagers life lessons. The cast also includes a young Haylie Duff, and the film was funded by Shipley Do-Nuts franchise owner Carolyn Clark.

As reported by The Houston Chronicle, though completed decades ago, the movie never found distribution and was shelved—until Houston Cinema Arts Society’s Rachael Valentine Acosta learned about it from one of Willems’ former students.

That discovery led to the upcoming premiere at the River Oaks Theatre on July 7, which would’ve been Duvall’s 76th birthday. The event includes a Q&A with Willems and Shelley Duvall Archive founder Sarah Lukowski.

The screening is part of a Duvall retrospective running throughout July at River Oaks, featuring films like Time Bandits, Brewster McCloud, and Popeye.

“Dreams in the Attic”

– July 7 at 7 p.m.
– River Oaks Theatre, 2009 W. Gray St., Houston
– Tickets: $26 – theriveroakstheatre.com